Case Study: Optimizing Content Management at the National Aquarium of Baltimore at Summit 2007

Went through a similar development process to what we did. But had to map old site to new site templates.

Documentation helped identify all the content classes prior to development. Started with 117 content classes. Mapping determined that most of the content elements (e.g. body text, content images) are left unchanged. Design elements were replaced/updated.

Creating a visual map of content classes and their relationships helps organize materials. Improves efficiency. NAB used SQL relationship tool to show relationships between classes and placeholders.

XHTML built outside of RedDot. Used active template code to avoid creating additional content classes (NOTE: This is something we need to look at. We’ve probably got cases where we can cut down on classes using a similar technique.) Active templates = no content class duplication. Went from 117 templates to 37.

General note I’ve been hearing from the sessions here: avoid target containers.

There is a plugin from RedDot called “Copy user assignments to another project”. Should probably review the available plugins. There are likely items that we can use to improve efficiency and system performance.

NAB giving out the source code for handling the calendar.

Integrated Google Maps API for displaying animal releases. Have separate content classes for handling Google Maps. One to initialize map, and another for the data points inside. Tracking points loaded into RedDot and sent to Google API as geocode points.

Demo of calendar tool. Uses a calendar entry page that replicates a print calendar with radio buttons for selecting beginning and end dates.